Eclipse: Accessing a editor template from plugin code

Question

Let's say I have a editor template (which inserts some arbitrary snippet of code) defined in my editor preferences.

I'd like to access that template programmatically. How do I do this?

I know the classes TemplateStore, TemplatePreferencesPage, and TemplatePersistentData exist, but I haven't been able to put them together into anything working.

Is there any example code that would allow me to access my editor template via Java code?

Answer 1

Well this is how I did it.

/**
 * Get the Template Store of the JDT UI.
 * 
 * @return the JDT template store
 */
private TemplateStore getTemplateStore() {
    if (templateStore == null) {
        System.out.println("templateStore is null - Creating a new one");

        final ContributionContextTypeRegistry registry = new ContributionContextTypeRegistry(JavaUI.ID_CU_EDITOR);
        final IPreferenceStore store = PreferenceConstants.getPreferenceStore();

        templateStore = new ContributionTemplateStore(registry, store, TEMPLATES_KEY);

        try {
            templateStore.load();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            WSConsole.e(e);
        }
        templateStore.startListeningForPreferenceChanges();
    }
    return templateStore;
}

The above method returns the TemplateStore. You use the store to add, delete, find templates.

private void filterTemplates() {
    templateStore = getTemplateStore();

    deleteTemplate(templateStore, "org.eclipse.jdt.ui.templates.sysout");

    try {
        templateStore.save();
    } catch (IOException e) {
    }
}

private void deleteTemplate(TemplateStore templateStore, String id) {
    TemplatePersistenceData templateData = templateStore.getTemplateData(id);
    if (templateData != null) {
        templateStore.delete(templateData);
    }
}

This is how to perform operations on the TemplateStore. If you want to find the pattern, name, description of a Template, you can get that by getting a Template object from the TemplateStore. If you want to find the id of a template, you can get that from the TemplatePersistantData object.

Answer 2

May be this JavaPlugin class (within org.eclipse.jdt.internal.ui package of eclipse) may provide you with a first lead to follow.

 /**
  * Returns the template store for the code generation templates.
  *
  * @return the template store for the code generation templates
  * @since 3.0
  */
 public TemplateStore getCodeTemplateStore() {
     if (fCodeTemplateStore == null) {
         IPreferenceStore store= getPreferenceStore();
         boolean alreadyMigrated= store.getBoolean(CODE_TEMPLATES_MIGRATION_KEY);
         if (alreadyMigrated)
             fCodeTemplateStore= new ContributionTemplateStore(getCodeTemplateContextRegistry(), store, CODE_TEMPLATES_KEY);
         else {
             fCodeTemplateStore= new CompatibilityTemplateStore(getCodeTemplateContextRegistry(), store, CODE_TEMPLATES_KEY, getOldCodeTemplateStoreInstance());
             store.setValue(CODE_TEMPLATES_MIGRATION_KEY, true);
         }

         try {
             fCodeTemplateStore.load();
         } catch (IOException JavaDoc e) {
             log(e);
         }

         fCodeTemplateStore.startListeningForPreferenceChanges();

         // compatibility / bug fixing code for duplicated templates
         // TODO remove for 3.0
        CompatibilityTemplateStore.pruneDuplicates(fCodeTemplateStore, true);            
     }

     return fCodeTemplateStore;
 }

From there, you could find some class using that function:

NewASInterfaceWizard seems to need to access those code templates:

private String resolveTemplate(String templateName) {

        Template template = ASEditorPlugin.getDefault().getCodeTemplateStore().findTemplate(templateName);
        if (template == null) {
            showErrorBox("Could not resolve template (" + templateName +").");
            return "";
        }

        // Create the template context
        TemplateContext templeteContext = new TemplateContext(new ASContextType()) {

            public TemplateBuffer evaluate(Template template) throws BadLocationException, TemplateException {
                TemplateTranslator translator = new TemplateTranslator();
                TemplateBuffer buffer = translator.translate(template);
                getContextType().resolve(buffer, this);
                return buffer;
            }

            public boolean canEvaluate(Template template) {
                return true;
            }

        };

        try {
            return templeteContext.evaluate(template).getString();
        } catch (BadLocationException e) {
            logger.error("Couldnt evaluate template",e);
        } catch (TemplateException e) {
            logger.error("Couldnt evaluate template",e);
        }
       return "";

}

Used like that:

        private static final String FILE_HEADER_TEMPLATE = "file_header";
        // Header
        String header = resolveTemplate(FILE_HEADER_TEMPLATE);
        if (header.length() > 0) {
            content.append(header + "\n");
        }